Should social media be banned?

The government just announced a “social media ban” for kids under the age of 16. Now, I don’t have nippers anymore, so it won’t affect my family directly. But it did get me thinking about my own experience of social media. As I often say, I don’t really “do” social media. I’m not active on Facebook, I don’t use Instagram, and while I do consume content on TikTok and YouTube, I am definitely what you’d call a lurker. You won’t find me posting pictures of my dinner or reels of my morning routine! You won’t find any “proud dad” posts or pictures of me with my feet up around the pool on holiday. 

But I am pretty active on LinkedIn. Or at least, I have been for the past few years. If I am totally honest, I’m getting a little sick of it. It used to be a place to talk shop, make genuine business connections, but these days, it feels like everyone is just out there to sell, sell, sell. DMs landing in my inbox daily, selling me their AI tool, marketing solution, recruitment service, and anything else you can think of. People trying to pitch to me, totally cold, with no attempt at building a genuine connection. Just straight on in there with “hey, buy my stuff!” 

Now, I might be a little old-school, but you wouldn’t walk up to someone at a networking event and just straight in with a business card and pitch, would you? So why am I on there, I found myself wondering? Should I come off altogether? Probably not. Because while I do feel the quality of LinkedIn has gone down and it’s becoming less of a networking site and more of a pitching platform, I still believe we need to keep a public profile. How many times have you considered working with someone only to check them out on LinkedIn or Facebook and find a faceless profile with no posts? Did it put you off? It would me. 

So, despite the attention-seeking slop, the endless cold pitch DMs and mindless content, I’ll still be on LinkedIn doing my best to connect with the people who still want to do business the old-school way. Building relationships, making connections and creating a network based on trust. 

How about you? Do you think social media is dying? What’s your experience on LinkedIn? Let me know. And if you fancy connecting on LinkedIn, send me an invite. Just don’t put a cold pitch in your DM 😉